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Email sent 20/11/07
Professor John
Wanna,
Griffith
University
Caution: 'Sunshine past offers a glimpse of Rudd's style'
I should like to
congratulate you on the accuracy of your recent observations about the
Goss Government era in Queensland in
which the present Opposition leader (Mr
Rudd) played a very prominent
role - and also to provide some feedback on
the basis of detailed study of, and long involvement in, the issues it raised.
My interpretation of your article:
Kevin Rudd has some form in government already - both in
the diplomatic service and as the second most powerful person under the
Goss Government in Queensland (or perhaps the most powerful). Rudd
believed that governments should be proactive in policy - but rational and
pragmatic. He also fought to increase premiers' powers in COAG. Some
expect that Rudd might again behave as he did in Queensland - which would
make him seem some form of recidivist. The Goss government was a control
freak's dream. The government was dismissive of caucus, ministers were
relieved of policy responsibility and media control / political spin were
highly centralised. Rudd was regarded as a centrist controller,
distrustful of professionals and someone who did not suffer fools gladly.
He was convinced there were right answers to policy questions. He was
nicknamed Dr Death (amongst other things) and was accused (with others) of
arranging the notorious 'gulag'. Rudd ran a large, activist and hands-on
cabinet office with an ambitious policy purview. It often over-rode
ministers - and developed a culture of adversarial relations with the
public service. It pretended to concentrate all policy at the centre. Rudd
diagnosed Queensland's problem as lack of policy capacity, unresponsive
departments and poor leadership across the public service. His view
in the Commonwealth Government will be different. It has a larger and more
competent public service. Rudd has learned from his youthful exuberance,
and will be a minister not a bureaucrat. He learned from the
Goss Government's rejection by electorate in 1995 and 1996. If he
becomes Prime Minister he will
have to work through cabinet, ministers with their own power bases, and
caucus. He has already announced the
formation of a razor gang and may tinker with performance pay.
Similar signals got the Queensland
Public Services' back up in 1990s. Rudd is learning. The task of managing
the Commonwealth will be approached differently. He has learned not to do
things the Queensland way (Wanna J. 'Sunshine past offers a glimpse of
Rudd's style', Australian,
17-18/11/07).
There is no doubt,
as your article suggests, that the Queensland
Public Service was grossly
mismanaged under the Goss administration.
Moreover, what
you identified as Mr Rudd's diagnosis of
the Public Service's problem (ie a lack of policy capability,
coordination and leadership) was
fairly insightful. Some of those limitations probably reflect the 'curse' of
Queensland's natural resource wealth (see
options for reform suggested in The Upper
House Solution: A Commentary). Others reflect neglect in the 1980s. However
Mr Rudd's diagnosis was too narrow, as weakness in public policy capability and
in effective leadership of large complex organizations extend throughout the
community generally.
Unfortunately the Goss administration did not understand that it was itself a
symptom of Queensland' problems.
What was
done to the Public Service by the
Goss Government made a bad
situation much worse
(see
Queensland's Worst Government?). Mr
Rudd may not have suffered fools gladly, but it was clear that someone did.
Practical performance was poor. The careers
of large numbers of innocent
people were damaged or destroyed - including
those who had previously diagnosed Queensland's problems and were trying to
solve them in a more responsible and less 'youthfully exuberant' way.
Queensland's Public Service
remains to this day devoid of professional or moral credibility because of the disgraceful
abuses associated with that era. And government administration
in Queensland has remained dysfunctional and crisis prone.
I would find confidence in your assurance about
Mr Rudd having learned not to do things in the
Queensland way if current ALP
proposals for reform of the Commonwealth Public Service
did not sound so much like those of the Goss Government
(see
Smart Casual Kevin: 'Learning' in
and 'Outgrowing' the Queensland Public Service?).
I also find it
to be of concern that:
-
you suggest that the Commonwealth Public Service
is a larger and more professional body which would not require much reform -
whereas it clearly has been subjected to the same sort of politicisation and
centralization that disabled Queensland's Public Service (eg see
The
Growing Case for a Professional Public Service
and
Decay of Australian Public
Administration); and
- Mr Rudd
reportedly suggested (Wright L., 'Policy flood in first weeks', Sunday
Mail, 18/11/07) that a particular target for 'cutting fat' from the
Commonwealth Public Service would be the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade, an agency it appears that for some publicly unknown reason Mr Rudd
found it convenient to also 'outgrow' early in his career.
I sincerely hope
that you are wrong in implying that Mr Rudd's 'sunshine past' offers a glimpse
of his style as a prospective prime minister.
Regards
John Craig
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